‘I don’t know. Those men. They seemed so – I don’t know – so strange. And that fight; all that shooting. It was horrible. I don’t like it. Let’s move on quickly; get away from here.’
The girl felt a cold chill all over despite the heat of the sun. She was horribly afraid; more so than she had ever been before, and she, who had lived nearly all her life with humans, had felt it more than the animals. Something was going terribly wrong. She turned to Nab. ‘Hold me,’ she said, and he put his arms around her and she closed her eyes for a second and with her head snuggled against his shoulder she felt better.
On they walked but they could not escape the ghastly black columns of smoke nor get out of the scorched blackened landscape which seemed to stretch for mile upon mile around them in every direction. The sickly stench from the fires grew steadily more unbearable until even the act of breathing became something which they dreaded. Their hands, faces and feet were ingrained with black from the soot and the charred ground, and nowhere was there enough clean water to wash it off properly. When they came to a pond now it was almost certain to be dried up, its bed split open and cracked in great mud fissures, and they would search for a little corner somewhere where there might be a remaining puddle of foul-smelling brackish liquid with which they would attempt to slake their ravening thirst.
Every day now they saw two or three bands of Urkku like the first, wandering ragged and aimless on the burnt ground, guns under their arms and eyes constantly moving as if they were afraid of being seen. This made it harder for the animals to avoid them as they were far quieter and less easily spotted than they used to be and the travellers were only able to move slowly with Warrigal flying ahead to make sure everything was clear to go on. Often now he would come back and report Urkku in front and they would have to wait for agonizing hours until they had moved on and it was safe to go ahead. They slept during these waiting periods and travelled when they could rather than sleeping every afternoon, and they found that they made better progress after Sun-High because the heat was so intense then that there were fewer Urkku around. The sound of shooting was also common, either a single crack or a battery of shots such as they had heard that first time, and then they would come across the casualties of these random fights and be careful to avoid going too close to them for fear of disturbing the flies and because of the smell. There was very little shade from the searing heat of those afternoons because all the green foliage from the hedges and trees had been burnt off. Giant oaks and sycamores, whose leaves had once cast a fragrant cool green shade on the grass, now stood gaunt, black and naked, their charred limbs standing out starkly against the clear blue sky.
One afternoon they saw a city in the distance. No smoke came from its factory chimneys and no hum of traffic from its roads and streets. Instead it lay like a huge slumbering giant and sizzled under the heat; the sun baking the concrete and sending out dazzling reflections from the empty office block windows. A shimmering heat haze hung over it and the unearthly silence was only very occasionally shattered by the wailing of a siren.
While the animals stood on the brow of a little hill from which they could see the sprawl of concrete stretching away into the far horizon, they suddenly became aware of a column of smoke just beginning to claw its way up into the sky on their right.
‘I’ll fly over and try and see what’s happening,’ said Warrigal. ‘It’d be quicker and safer for me than any of you and I think we ought to find out.’
‘Yes, that’s a good idea. But take care,’ Nab replied. ‘We’ll wait for you back in that little hollow.’
The owl flew off slowly and quietly and the others went back down the hill. It did not take Warrigal long to come within sight of the fire and he went as close as he could, perching on the branch of one of a number of what had once been sycamores situated around the outside of a clearing. Inside the clearing a large number of Urkku were milling around and shouting and in the middle a fire was crackling and spitting fiercely. The flames were hard to see in the bright glare of the sun but he could feel its heat even from where he was perched and there was no mistaking the sickening smell of the thick black smoke as it billowed its way up from the fire. Through the smoke Wsirrigal could see two large mounds from which the Urkku kept feeding the fire but it was too thick for him to make out what they were so, very cautiously, he flew round to the other side of the clearing. The sight that met his eyes filled him with horror. The mound furthest away from him was composed of dead Urkku and the other of dead animals; but it was when he forced himself to look more closely that the full impact of what he was seeing made itself felt. Warrigal was the least emotional of any of the animals but even he was unable to contain a flood of terror as he realized that the dead animals on the second pile were all either badgers, hares, fawn-coloured dogs or owls. They had been thrown together carelessly on to the pile as if they were pieces of wood and their heads and limbs stuck out at odd angles.
Suddenly the owl’s trance-like state, caused by the horror in front of him, was shattered by a piercing shout from an Urkku who had come over to the pile to collect some more carcasses for the fire.
‘There’s one. Quick. Kill it.’ There was a roar from the other Urkku who all began to rush forward to the tree where he was perching and then the crack of a gun sounded above the noise of the fire and Warrigal heard the thud of a bullet as it hit the branch above him. He flew quickly back through the belt of trees that surrounded the clearing while behind him the mob of yelling Urkku crashed their way through the undergrowth below and the air around him hummed and whistled with the sound of bullets. Swiftly he sped through the branches, using every trick he knew to gain extra speed and keeping an eye on the ground below to lead his pursuers through the thickest undergrowth. Eventually, to his intense relief, the sounds of pursuit began to fade away into the distance and the cracking of the guns stopped. Nevertheless he did not slacken his speed until he arrived back in sight of the little hollow where the others were waiting. He did not fly straight back to them but perched for a time on a tree at the edge of the field they were in, in case he was still being followed. There was no sight of Urkku anywhere and the smoke from the fire was getting thicker so he assumed they had returned and were continuing to feed it with its grisly fuel. He put his head on one side and listened intently but, apart from the shouting in the distance, everywhere was still and quiet. Then, certain that he was not being followed, he rejoined the others.
Ever since they had heard the commotion and the shooting from the direction of the fire the others had been frantic with worry and when the owl’s familiar silhouette glided gracefully over the edge of the hollow, they were overjoyed with relief. Perryfoot jumped up and down and standing on his hind legs danced about, tapping the others with his front paws and chanting ‘Warrigal’s safe, Warrigal’s safe,’ over and over again.
The owl looked at the hare with affection and then said sadly, ‘I’m afraid I don’t bring good news. ’ Slowly he recounted every detail of what he had seen and when he had finished his tale Perryfoot was sitting slumped against the bank with his ears drooping along his back and Brock, Nab and Beth sat quietly staring at the ground. They did not understand the meaning of the dead Urkku but they slowly began to realize the awful significance of the pile of animals by the fire. Finally Warrigal spoke again.
‘Until they’re certain they have found us they will kill every badger, every owl, every hare and every dog like Sam that they can find. The longer we delay, the more will die.’